Dandelions
by little red cardigan
Summary: "You would think that Paul would be the dangerous one, but no...out of all of us, Embry's the most volatile." A dark twist on the man formerly known as Embry Call.
1. Chapter One

**A/N: **So, I posted this story under the title "Sighs that Blew Me Forward" and took it off for whatever reason. I edited it so that the chapters are a little longer this time and I'm hoping that I won't lose interest in this fic like I did the first time. Why am I starting this story while in the middle of another one? Because apparently, I'm batshit crazy that way.

I tweaked with the original story line about, in the case that Quil's already phased when Bella finds out about the pack. I also made both Embry and Jacob (and if you want to count Quil) one year younger than Bella instead of usual two years.

**Disclaimer: **All publicly recognized characters, settings, situations, etc. belong to Stephenie Meyer herself. The chapter titles belong to the song "Between Two Lungs" by Florence and the Machine. No copyright infringement is intended.

**Rating:** M for language and content

**Pairing: **Embry/Bella - _embrella_ is such a cute name for them :)

* * *

**Dandelions**

**...**

Chapter One

[_Between two lungs it was released_]

* * *

Of all the times for Bella to finally break her surprisingly inward fearless streak in, this was probably one of the worst. There was just no chance in hell that a pathetically pale and skinny girl such as herself was capable of taking on what appeared to be a group of humanized gods on steroids. But like a bull influenced by the sight of a waving red flag, Bella charged at the men with bristling anger. It was just too bad no one else was there to pick up all the pieces when these supposed drug dealers finished tearing Bella apart afterward.

Let's make the correction that she was not the bull in this kind of scenario. No, she was the wimpy _matador_ waving that goddamn stupid flag for the brutish animal's attention, just waiting like an idiotic fool to be slaughtered for the crowd's amusement. Nothing could stop Bella from her resolve, and apparently, the brunette had some shocking strength in her when she was perpetually angry. This was all going to go down as a fail – she knew this.

Christ, they were a whole lot bigger up close.

"What did you do? What did you _do_ to him?" To everyone's consternation, Bella actually had the gall to shove Sam's torso. Of course the man didn't budge an inch, but Bella swore she heard her own fingers cracking at the friction.

One of them immediately stepped forward at the assault. "Watch it, dollface."

The _Hey, don't freaking talk to me like that_ automatically formed in her mouth, but for her better judgment, Bella held her tongue. She wasn't stupid enough to stroke the fire while it was hot, especially when even the smallest of these men could verily snap her body like a twig.

"He didn't want this!" Bella continued to scream at Sam. _  
_

One of the boys snorted in response.

Naturally, she turned in the direction of the suppressed laughter, her brown eyes narrowing at one of them, drawn to the person like a floating magnet. For some reason, his dark hair wasn't as inky black as the rest of his group mates. The blackness of his hair was subtly softened by the faintest hints of brown and a bit longer than the established crew-cut of Sam Uley's cult, his skin not as dark as the others, and his eyes a slight bit larger than the typical Quileute. Not to mention that he was kind of startlingly _gorgeous_...but that wasn't the point.

Point is, he was staring at her like she was made of freaking gold or something, like she was suddenly the sun of this newfound world. The guy next to him jabbed him sharply with an elbow, but that didn't at all waiver him from gazing at Bella. Usually, she was the first to back down from a staring contest – even the fun, try-not-to-blink wars – but this passing of glance was beyond anything she had ever experienced. Her eyes averted to the growing tension between herself, Sam, and that other temperamental one, but she could still feel him looking at her.

As though she was unable to deter her gaze any longer, Bella was compelled to look back at the male again. Gone were the essences of awe and some adoration because in place was something much more considerably darker. She felt like one of those dead pigs that were hung on display in a butcher's shop. The godlike man looked _hungry _and honestly, it was starting to border on the lines of fucking creepy. Maybe Jacob was right, maybe these guys are gang bangers, but not just normal ones – no, they were all cannibalistic ones who fed on girls.

Her imagination was getting the best of her and Bella thought of unreasonably disgusting things centering on the subject of wild cannibals. Her frown turned deeper and deeper until she stared directly into that man's eyes...

...and _no_, that couldn't be Embry Call.

The man before her was certainly not the sweet, shy boy she had met in Jacob's garage. Not the boy that flushed pleasantly whenever Bella did so much as look at him, not the boy that joked around with Quil when she wasn't looking. This unfamiliar man was a far cry from the boy she didn't get the chance to know.

Next came the crisp sound of a palm hitting against flesh. Bella herself looked appalled at what she had just done, though her stinging hand didn't make things any better. Nothing mattered anymore because the livid man she had just struck began to twitch and shake in almost every direction.

"Paul...calm down," Sam's deep baritone slipped into the air as he vainly tried to push the other one back.

Bella's eyes widened at the look of fury that contorted Paul's face. His feral gaze was trained intently on her, every last cord in his neck bulging out as he bared his teeth in rage and lifted his upper lip in the beginnings of what looked like, and surely was, a heady snarl. His eyes burned with an animalistic hatred uncommon in the average male and his body horrifically jerked until the bones cracked in retribution-

Her ears perked at the shifting bones and Bella instinctively knew that this Paul – every single one of them – wasn't human. Especially when Paul's body flung himself forward in an explosion of fur.

"_Embry, no!" _

An abnormally tall and muscled body threw himself between Bella and the giant wolf that had just begun it's tedious prowl. A calloused, hot hand grabbed at her wrist and thrust her backward until the back of her knees gave out and she landed on her bottom a few feet away. Just by the commingled hues of his hair, Bella knew exactly who he was, seeing as her vision blocked was by outrageously broad shoulders before he, too, combusted into a cyclopean wolf.

Just as the scraps of his tattered clothing slithered down through the air, her savior of sorts, Embry, lowered his massive form into a deep and steady crouch, the essence of danger radiating from his furry body. Strangely enough, more palpable tension slipped into the atmosphere the moment Embry shape-shifted into a wolf as though _he _was the one more dangerous than the hotheaded Paul. At this point, Bella found that impossible.

Embry's wolf form - for lack of better words - was utterly beautiful. He was a magnificent beast that stood way higher than her own height. His thick coat was composed of an intriguing white and gray hue on the underside of his body while streaks of black peppered his spine, the back of his head, the tips of his ears, and the outline of his growling muzzle. The temptation to run her fingers through his fur was almost overwhelming in that instant.

In a revolution of strained muscles and tremendously furious roars, the two wolves collided in midair without hesitation. She gnawed on her lip as they proceed to tear ruthlessly into each other's skin, the distinct colors of their fur blurring into a messy line. The gleam of white sharp teeth glinted against the sun on this rare cloudless day, appearing and disappearing from her vision in rapt speed. The white and black wolf powerfully shoved the gray wolf until the two beasts were ripping through the forests with thunderous, echoing disarray.

Her heart threatened to pound right out of her chest, but not for the sake of her own life.

She feared for _Embry_. And she couldn't explain this even if she wanted to.

"Take her back to Emily," came Sam's shout before the man ran after them, kicking off his shoes on the way.

"I – I didn't know—" Because not only was Bella a grade A klutz, she also stumbled with her words.

"Damn, Embry's going to _tear_ him to pieces," one of the two remaining guys sniggered, nudging the other one.

"_Quil!"_ Bella admonished, aghast that the concept of being ripped apart could actually apply to the situation. "They're going to be alright, aren't they?"

The still unnamed shape-shifter snorted derisively. "Paul loses his temper two to three times a day. There won't be a scratch on him."

"Oh, please," Quil was so very quick to disagree with an obvious roll of his eyes. "Did you see Em phase on the fly like that? Just based on the way he chases after the leeches, you know Paul's gonna go down..."

While the boys proceeded to make bets on the fighting wolves, Bella stumbled forth into the clearing to pick up the pair of black sneakers that have mercifully been saved from the transition of man to creature.

Her gut told her that she should be the one to return them to him.

* * *

Embry almost tore apart the spare shorts Emily always left hanging in the back of the house whilst putting them on.

Through the open abode of Emily and Sam's home, he could see her aside from the thick wood of the building. A tilt of his head and he was met with the glorious view of the girl quietly munching on freshly-baked muffins at the main table. There was resplendence in the sheen of her long brown hair, illuminating opalescence in the healthy glow of her skin, the dark mahogany in her eyes, sharp indentions and graceful lines in the structure of her slender body, and an absolute otherworldly beauty in the wondrous features of her face.

He almost didn't want to go in there and face his imprint, not at all liking his now unforeseeable future, but the sight of what she was holding in her right hand made him reel back ridiculously. Dangling between those nimble fingers were the laces to his sneakers.

_His _fucking goddamn shoes.

Inhaling through his nose with clenched tight eyes, Embry walked through the door. Albeit his silent footsteps, the pack and the two females in the room turned their heads at his untimely arrival. Feeling _her_ pondering gaze, the urge to fall to his knees before her and beg for her to just give him her time of day was instantaneous and demanding, his mind torn asunder of resistance and lustful want.

"Muffin?" Emily was the first to break the silence, her unblemished face lighting in her usual smile.

"No," he managed out, and it was so damn hard because avoiding his imprint's eyes was a mentally tiring task. Tongue pressed against his cheek, the male sauntered into the kitchen with all intentions of being alone.

Just as Embry was about to lean against the counter, he caught sight of her getting up to approach him.

The need to impress her struck him like a blow to the gut, prompting him to shift in as many small angles as he could to give her the best possible view of himself, his muscles coiling to become much more heightened, his body arching only slightly to straighten out every inch of his six-foot-seven body. While her beautiful eyes drifted down casually to his abdominal muscles, even if only for a second, his inner wolf purred uncharacteristically at her acknowledgment like a well-fed kitten.

The subtlety for this girl's approval faded and the corners of his lips lifted up cockily. "Need something, sweetheart?"

She stopped herself from flinching at the endearment. "Here," she held out his sneakers by the laces, her voice a litany of melodious hymns.

"Thanks." He took the shoes with certain caution, making sure his fingers didn't at all graze hers during the transition, but also carrying it out in a way that it didn't offend her in the slightest.

Because he knew that one simple touch was all it took for him to lose it right here and then. His jumping hormones were scarcely restrained as it is, the mere sight of her unraveling him slowly. One touch and he would be ensnared, wanting to touch her forever. He would be a man living a half life, dying eternally slowly just to put his arms around her waist all the time because Embry was now a firm believer that her small hips were _meant_ to be place holders for his large hands.

Hell, he was already thinking about ways of getting rid of everyone just so that he could take this girl right on that table they were eating on. He was already thinking with his dick.

"What happened to you?" the girl daringly hopped up onto the counter and sat cross-legged _right next to him. _Her plump bottom lip was suddenly tucked into her mouth and Embry followed the movement religiously.

He arched an eyebrow. "What do you mean, sweetheart?"

"Bella," she corrected with her nose wrinkling in distaste. The small gesture looked adorable to him. "Or you could call me Bells if you'd like—"

_"No!"_ Embry's abrupt snarl caused Bella to jump fractionally and it was a miracle that she didn't bump her head against the cupboard behind her. There was a slight pause out in the main room. He didn't mean to react like that, it was just that 'Bells' frequently came out of _his_ mouth. "I prefer 'sweetheart'. Does that bother you?" he added with a smirk, easing the tension as his eyes drifted south.

Bella sniffed. "This wolf thing - you aren't killing innocent people, are you?"

Embry didn't realize he was laughing until his head was tilted back and his mouth was open. It literally stunned everyone else out in the main room because they have been trying fruitlessly to get him to lighten up ever since he phased. Even Jacob was better than him, placing his usual good-natured smile every once in a while, good enough to lift up the spirits of the wolf pack as a whole. All of them were starting to believe that the dark black cloud was going to take permanent residence above Embry's head.

He was tainted, and fuck, he knew this all too well. The wolf consumed him entirely and Embry didn't rest until he could actually feel one of those bloodsucker's heads trapped in the alcoves of his jaw. He took gruesome pleasure in sinking his teeth deep into their marble flesh, receiving gleeful satisfaction at the sharp sounds of their limbs breaking away from their bodies, twisting unnaturally until their arms and legs were ripped jaggedly by the ends, and their bones were snapped out of place. Only then could he sleep well at night when their goddamn glacial bodies continue to burn in the pyres of a never-ending hell.

Sometimes he just wished that vampires could bleed. He would like to taste the metallic copper of their blood on his tongue; he would like to drag their bleeding bodies all over a field just so that he could see the grass drenched in a crimson river; he would like to see their motherfucking dead bodies waste away in the puddles of their own blood and rot before they were finally burnt to a crisp. He _exceeded_ at killing far more than anyone else in the pack because there was personal retribution in this endless hunt of sanguine savagery.

These vampires have taken everything away from him – his one-way ticket out of the reservation, his formerly good relationship with his mother, his chances for a scholarship. His mind and soul. His inner sanity.

His tattered humanity or what was left of it, that is.

Embry never thought this would happen to him. Fucking damn it, imprinting was supposed to be _rare_. The whole process robbed this girl, this beautiful angel, of a choice and she didn't even know it! She sure as hell didn't deserve to be stuck with a person like him. Why spend the rest of your life with a monster who enjoyed slaughter?

What was even worse was that she had willingly gone out with that golden-eyed leech. Yeah, Bella Swan would know everything about dating freaks of nature.

Imprinting or not, the girl had an absolutely gorgeous face. Coffee brown eyes than he could sink himself into those depths for immeasurable amounts of time, a wonderfully straight nose that his index finger could slide on if he wanted, eyelashes so long, he could almost touch them from his leaning distance, pale white skin comparable to the softer shade of moon, a slender body that should allow him to wrap his arms around it twice, perfectly small breasts he could only imagine cupping or having them graze his chest, lithe thighs sturdy enough to hang onto his hips-

"Uh, hey? Embry?"

The aforementioned male's eyes closed blissfully at the sound of his name on the tip of her tongue. If that was how she sounded just by murmuring it, he was readily eager to know how she would sound like screaming his name. His eyes opened lazily, druggingly, only to see her face a couple inches away from his. Her expression was confused, as though she wasn't entirely sure how they got into this position.

"_Shit," _he hissed viciously under his breath.

She was his best friend's girl. Bella was Jake's.

No, she's _yours_ now.

Tearing away from her pretty gaze, if that was even remotely possible, he jumped away from the girl, his precious imprint, like he had been thoroughly electrocuted. Not realizing that he had been gripping onto the edges of the counter for the duration of the short time he had spent with her, a guttural growl formed at the base of his throat, clawing its way to push out of his mouth.

"Embry?" she repeated it, this time much more slowly, testing the waters. She didn't look too scared of him; on the contrary, she didn't at all look fazed by him or the inhumane sounds that started to grate his being.

The sight of her was stolen from him the moment he pivoted away from her, storming out of this kitchen, out of this goddamn house. He was barely out of the front door before he ripped the shorts off of him, the essence of his remaining mankind withering under the reins of his wolf. With a roar of outrage, he sprinted into the familarity of the woods, catapulting his whole shaking body against one of the old trees, content when the oak snapped under the pressure of his weight.

Bella looked sheepishly at a troubled Sam. "I swear, I didn't do anything..."

"No, it's not you," Sam reassured her, pinching the bridge of his nose with his fingers. The poor guy sounded tired already. "You would think that Paul would be the dangerous one, but no...out of all of us, Embry's the most volatile." She wasn't sure whether or not he was muttering to himself or offering an explanation to her for the other male's behavior.

"Um..."

"I think it's best if you go home now, Bella," Sam told her before making his way out the door. The rest of the boys have already run out, their shorts flying away as they proceeded to chase Embry through the forest. "Remember your promise," he turned to her one last time, wanting a gesture of understanding from her.

She nodded once at him. "Got it. I won't tell anyone about all this."

Sam repeated the notion before kissing Emily's cheek and kicking off his shoes once more. Huh. Déjà vu.

Bella heard the agonized howls as she tried to drive home on her old truck. She pretended that her shaking fingers had nothing to do with the wolf that was currently taking his frustrations out on the vast forest around her.

* * *

This wasn't his bedroom.

He couldn't remember, for the very life in him, ever having _purple_ linens surrounding every surface of the bed. The sheets had a cooling effect on his permanently hot body temperature, the soft satin of the material tickling his front as he lied on his stomach. His heavily hooded eyes twitched at the feather-light sensation that invaded his progression of dreamless slumber, the indiscernible warmth passing his visage as an ultimate hindrance before he finally rolled over and glared at the source of the light.

But as soon as an obsidian eye peeked open in irritation, it shut close as quickly as it had opened beforehand when the cruel onslaughts of the sun's bright rays were cast onto his face. His head tilted lazily, eyeing the dark shades of the tree that was exploited out of this bedroom's only window. Small beams of heat and effulgence escaped the peepholes of the leaves, having also managed to evade the billowing curtains before half of the unrecognizable room was basked in the morning's late welcoming.

Embry cursed and rolled back onto his stomach, having every intention to shove his head under the sanctity of that large, lilac pillow until something disturbing caught his attention. With caution, he moved his eyes up to survey the headboard of the bed.

A good chunk of the formerly smoothed oak had been _ripped_ off. The remnants of the wood were left splintering, stray pieces of jagged wood abruptly shown there awkwardly to taunt him. Despite the bed being queen-sized, by his predictions, his long legs hovered out from the edge of the bed, allowing one of his never-ending limbs to touch something hard on the floor.

One flick of his head and his eyes widened marginally, staring wordlessly at the great chunk of wood that rested at the foot of the purple bed. A light sound of laughter caused his heart beats to accelerate quite fast as he pinpointed his gaze towards the door.

His breathing became lost to him while he frantically tried to calm his bursting heart. A vision of beauty had her slender frame leaned against the wooden panels of the door frame, her wondrous hair falling into gleaming mahogany waves at her waist. She was clad in a man's black dress shirt, only the last two buttons enclosed together to showcase her milky skin, the flat of her stomach, and the black bra that secured the small breasts that were proportional to the rest of her small body.

The shape-shifter nearly growled at the sight of her in another man's clothing before he realized...that was one of _his_ shirts. His shock multiplied the moment he stared at the familiarity of her face, drinking the sight in until it made his mouth water like a thirsty man who had just gone through the dry deserts of sand.

A brilliant smile touched the corners of her pillowed mouth, her pale legs leaving the ground in an uncharacteristically graceful jump before she flopped unceremoniously onto the bed right next to him.

"_...Bella?"_

Said female settled down comfortably in such a close proximity of Embry, her relaxed posture giving away the fact that she wasn't afraid of him or wary of him like so many others. Her eyes narrowed at him playfully then and she was just so. Fucking. _Beautiful_.

A happy sigh left Bella, her breasts lifting ever so slightly at the small motion, practically prompting his eyes to follow every faint movement thrown from her. "I don't know why we keep replacing the headboard," she chuckled softly. "Considering you always keep breaking it."

She was just sprawled there languidly, ripe and ready to be taken. His cock twitched up in arousal. The hastily-buttoned shift had parted from her excursion to the bed, revealing a matching pair of dark panties to her bra. The coal-colored lingerie set contrasted against her white skin so much that she seemed to glow in the already-illuminated room. The sun couldn't compare to her.

With a lack of discretion, his palm reached out to cradle her cheek. His insides swelled with a satisfaction and happiness he had never exposed himself to before, his growing need to please and worship her rising steadily when she hummed lightly at the touch. Catching her bottom lip between her pearls of teeth, Bella's eyes closed, her lashes painting shadows against her cheekbones, whilst her head inclined more into the callouses of his rough hand.

Her gentle fingers had winded up wrapping themselves around his lifted wrist, the one that was still busily exploring the contours of her cheek, and she turned her head a little more to press a delicate kiss at the center of his palm, a streak of mischief sneaking out when her tongue flicked quickly and sharply over his skin.

And then, he couldn't take it anymore.

Embry pounced on his imprint, a low growl slipping through his clenched teeth as her chocolate orbs skimmed down the length of his body in apparent approval. Her eyes rested predominantly on his straining erection, the swirl of emotions on her face washing over in an amalgamated mixture of passion, affection, love, _want_...all for him. Only for him. Forever for him.

He still didn't understand how they got here and why, but his wolf was _hungry_. His head dipped down to taste her for what seemed like the first time, his mouth murmuring over the valley of her breasts. He vaguely felt Bella's hands slipping into his hair, massaging his scalp and tugging the strands of his hair in a way to make him groan against his upward trek to her throat. His body shook with a certain rapture that had been bundled up over the years, threatening now to squeeze itself painfully from his chest.

Fingers trembling, but not lacking conviction or determination, he surrendered himself to his budding emotions and allowed himself to become a victim to this unfound susceptibility as his fingers grappled with buttons to small for him, her quiet, breathless moans playing both a soothing and an inflaming soundtrack to his head-

"_Fuck!"_

Goddamned reality settled over him as his fist smashed against the alarm clock that lulled him from his dream, forcing him to wake up in his own bed, covered in his own sheets, in his own stupid room...alone.

An ear-splitting howl rang in the distance of the early afternoon. Gritting his teeth, he glared out of the window of his small room, tightening at the woods that faced the front of his house. Ever since those fucking Cullens left, more and more leeches had been passing by their territory with no abandon. Since they were enslaved to dedicate their whole lives into protecting their tribe from vampires that rarely pass La Push, it was sheer abiding law that they couldn't allow any one of them to escape their claws.

The near silent footsteps of Abigail Call were treading up the stairs the minute he was tying a random pair of elastic shorts onto his right ankle. He didn't have time for his mother to yell at him for coming in late again ("Is it drugs, Embry? Is Sam's group of boys bothering you, again? You used to be good, Embry!") He used to be a _good_ little boy, one that always listened to his mother, receiving nothing but A's and B's in his schoolwork, having the most potential of getting the hell out of the reservation out of everyone else-

Embry threw himself from the window before his mother opened his bedroom door.

His mother's tired, disconsolate sigh at the absence from his room was enough to make Embry phase. He was angry at everything, the world – but then again, what angsty teenager _wasn't_? Well, at least he had an acceptable excuse for it.

That sickeningly saccharine smell engulfed him all over, his nostrils burning at the candied scent. Hell, it was like stepping right into the perfume section at a mall, with thousands of women testing each item and spraying themselves all over. It was like that but a hundred times worse because of his heightened senses and the supernatural factor that played into it as well.

There was always that tiny inkling of hesitation he felt while phasing, that nagging blackness of doubt, because each and every time he did it, he ended up feeling as though he could run and never return. Leave in the line of duty, forsake the ones he had sworn to protect, stretch his muscles in a marathon across the world in favor of never hearing or stepping into Quileute territory again. He wasn't even fully sure if he was even partially Quileute – he was a bastard by birth and somewhat by character.

_Took you long enough. _Of course it was Paul who gave the signal – he had some sort of sixth sense with the leeches.

_Shut the fuck up._

_Oh? _Paul snorted derisively, muzzle lifted up in the air. _You PMSing again? Forget to take your happy pills?_

Embry didn't even bother responding because his wolf was already hurtling itself against Paul's silver form, biting hard enough to actually break into the other male's skin. They were both good at what they do; therefore, making the two of them the most difficult to deal with apart from the rest of the wolf pack. Tussles between Embry and Paul were no short of a formality these days.

_Both of you—stop._ Sam's voice intentionally raised the shackles that kept them chained to the Alpha wolf, conforming them to a reality where individuality and free would cease to exist. Paul, the closeted pussy, detached himself from the other beast almost immediately.

_Yes, your highness?_ Embry sneered at him sarcastically as much as a wolf could really.

Sam barely looked at him, but the disapproval seethed from the stark black animal. _How many, Paul?_

_There's two, headed along the coast. One little fucker and a cunt._

Paul's voice was intercepted by an image of Bella Swan flooding all their systems. Embry crouched low and snarled violently, his mind obligated to endure a symphony of many mental images involving how Jacob picked her up from her house this morning, how they shared popcorn _together_ while watching movie on his couch, them sharing a _hug_ before he left in haste-

_Sorry, _came Jacob's light apology as the russet wolf paraded into the scene. _I was with Bells._

_You're always with her, _Quil pointed out.

Bella. Her name is _Bella_ and you have no right to call her yours. Because she's _mine_, so fuck the hell off.

But these little slips of displeasure never left Embry's inner asylum. No one in their pack could every really know what Embry was thinking about unless he finally allowed them access to his detrimental mind. He was changeable, unpredictable, and perhaps just a tad bit insane in his homicidal art of massacre. He would think of anything and nothing and the others wouldn't have a clue.

Jacob eyed Embry's rumbling form warily before offering: _Shouldn't we take them down now?_

_No. _Embry cocked his head to the side and stared at his best friend evenly, a subtle patronizing undertone hidden in the gesture. _The coast that these bloodsuckers are running on will eventually have a dead end. It'll lead them straight here without us having to do much work._

And that was what separated Embry from the others, what considered him one of the best among their ranks. It took a lot giving into impulse, but it definitely warranted more control in restraining that compulsion to just chase after those leeches heedlessly. It was why Sam was lenient with the black and white wolf because the younger male had the uncanny ability to analyze a situation six ways from Sunday in the first minute, then a thousand ways beyond that.

Embry going rogue on them would just be the absolute worst thing the Pack would ever face and Sam wasn't going to bank a chance on that ever happening.

It would be silent to the human ears, but each wolf heard it like nails scratching a blackboard in an empty classroom. Embry went alongside with Quil because he couldn't stand being with either Paul or Jacob right now without exploding. They scattered from the clearing, somehow internally knowing where to go and which position served best for terrorizing carnage.

Well, let the fucking damn games begin.

_Aw, isn't this sweet? _Paul's voice slipped into his head on its own accord, the wolves busy flanking the leeches by a discernible berth that was there for a specific reason. _They hold hands while running together._

It was despicably true – the husband and wife never let go of each other in their fruitless attempts at escaping. It was obvious that they had no idea where to go, with the woods being unfamiliar to them, but he couldn't help but applaud them for putting up such a tremendous fight. They truly had perseverance, no doubt. That, and the fact that the vampire bitch's curls were starting to look a lot like Bella's.

_They're going to split up, _Embry warned. _They always fucking do that._

The signs were there already, in the way the female kept frantically squeezing the male's hand as though she was about to let go any second now. The bitch flickered her apprehensive gaze over her shoulder, her hair tossing with the wind, her crimson eyes lined with fear-

Without waiting for Sam's acknowledgement on the matter, Embry fell out of line and naturally let Quil take his place. Changing direction had always been a difficult concept for wolves of all kind, but he had managed to use a tree to pivot himself in the opposite route, nearly breaking the whole thing before bounding after the female. He could feel the shock radiating from her as she regarded him over the shoulder once more with enlarged eyes, picking up speed once she knew she was in close pursuit.

_Dude, you're close to her! _Why was it that Paul was the first to comment on everything? _Finish her, you dick!_

Sam ended up speaking in Embry's place instead. _Paul, be quiet. He knows what he's doing._

Embry snorted in agreement, although he couldn't tell if it was done mockingly or not. He snapped his jaw heartily, his extravagantly sharp teeth nipping playfully at the hem of the female's shirt – _Didn't your mother ever tell you not to play with your food_? – and Paul bringing up his mother at a time like this only infuriated him even more. Caught off her guard, the female let loose a small shriek, and Embry wouldn't deny it – it felt too delightful hearing her little squeal of fright.

Having no other option left, the female vampire soared into the air and began climbing one of tall trees originating from this neck of the woods. It didn't faze Embry one bit because she wasn't the first bitch to go airborne during a chase.

With a popping noise, he phased back into his human form, launching his tall frame to scale the oak of the thick tree after her. With his height and weight, some of the thin branches belonging to the tree should have snapped and fallen off. But his movements were mercurial, calm and cold liquid under blazing fire, with an unexplainable fluid grace that shouldn't have worked with someone of his structure, yet undeniably did. He was only seven branches away from the bitch...

...five...four...

...three...

...two...

The Pack was mentally screaming in his head, all shouting their encouragement and to just _get the fuck on with it_. There was a split-second of passing spent between his barefoot landing on the last branch that separated predator and prey. He used the edge of the slim piece of wood to vault himself after the brown-haired female, his world tilting and blurring as he phased in midair.

Before the bitch had the chance to even jump onto the next adjacent tree, Embry's jaw had molded itself around her entire head.

He spiraled the both of them down from the tree with his teeth clamped around the sides of her head, leaning his whole weight to crush her vehemently against the earthen floor. Their impact to the ground was done explosively, the sound echoing throughout the forest like a time bomb going off, restraining the ridiculous urge to roll his eyes back in sick pleasure as his molars sank into that skin of frozen granite.

Embry ripped into the bitch's skin to the percussion of his Pack mates' satisfaction, their grisly indulgence crossing the distance from all over, seeping into his reverberating body and filling him whole. The startling _crack _indicated that he had finally severed her pretty head from her neck, her fractured neck somehow reminding him of the splintered headboard of Bella's bedroom in his dream... he brutally snapped his head in the other direction and threw her dismembered head against an opposite tree.

Tearing her skin was comparable to peeling off a tangerine or an orange. He ignored the clamorous screams that were coming out of the female vampire mouth as he slowly tore off her skin bit by bit – he had always wondered how the leech could feel the pain that was coming from the rest of its body, even though the head was already detached – taking his sweet, gratifying time as the headless body writhed exceedingly from beneath him.

_Need my help? _he mindlessly sent the thought to the others.

_No. _Of course it was Paul. Why wouldn't it be? _The fucker started bawling like a bitch when you got his wife._

He could almost hear the exasperated sigh in Jared's tone. _Vampires can't cry...idiot..._

Ignoring that disgusting smell of candy and flowers and shit, Embry turned his muzzle back to the body that was still desperately trying to get away from him. He smirked at how _hard_ she was trying. _Oh no you don't, little girl_, he purred alongside the low rumbles of laughter that consumed the Pack before felicitously splitting her skin into spidery, cracked patterns with his jaw.

* * *

Bella let out an immense sigh of relief the moment the pack of wolves came prancing out of the woods. Despite the fact that he was entirely glad that Jacob was safe, it would be a complete lie to say that most of her solace was reserved for the russet wolf.

Overwhelming alleviation monopolized her being the moment she connected eyes with that beautiful white and black wolf. It had been days since she last saw him She shared a short smile with Billy before taking moderately calm steps away from red barn-like house of the Blacks. Even though he was in his wolf form, it felt so inexcusably _good_ to see Embry again, like the whole world made sense again when he was in her presence. He tilted his head side to side, regarding her with those human-like yellow lupine eyes.

The notion invited her to come closer, pulling her into a trance she wasn't sure she wanted to let go of. She couldn't hear the confused whine that erupted from the russet-colored wolf's chest, nor could she see the hesitation that was suddenly built around the other wolves, because she only saw him. A soft smile settled itself across her face when _her_ wolf lowered himself onto his hind knees at her approach, his ears folding back adorably to her submission. She tentatively reached a hand out...

Her wolf? Was it wrong that it sounded right to her ears? Was it wrong that Bella couldn't help but be drawn to Embry like this, even if she hadn't known him for very long?

Embry sniffed the air cautiously before touching his snout to her palm. Oh, she smelled like warm honeysuckle and it was such a welcoming difference compared to the god-awful odor of the leeches. In reminiscence of that heart-rending dream, the one he wanted to come true so, so fucking badly, his tongue darted out to take a lick at the center of her palm.

_You imprinted on Bella._

The sudden process of thought caused Embry to shoot back a few feet away from her, letting out an apologetic whimper at the shaken expression on her face at his abrupt action. He swore, Bella would be the only woman to make him fall to his knees. The only one.

_You imprinted on Bella_, Jacob repeated in the grating silence of their minds. _Bella. _My_ Bella._

He couldn't help himself when he responded: _She isn't fucking **YOURS**!_

And chaos imploded all over the very second – caught in a vulnerable moment for once – he let his dream slip past his guard, letting all his brothers see the sexual fantasy of the delicate brunette in front of them that had been responsible for his morning aching erection.

Jacob lurched himself from the ground, his teeth sinking in deep at Embry's side.

The cry involuntarily sprung from Embry at the brief pain.

"_No!" _The cry had flowed effortlessly from Bella's mouth as though she was _meant_ to protect him. It sounded so unlike her, the roar unnatural to her ears, but she didn't care. "Jacob! Get off him! Don't _touch_ him!"

She was a second away from throwing herself between the wolves, noticing that Embry was doing nothing at all to stop Jacob from attacking him, and she couldn't just stand there and watch him get hurt. She was just an ordinary human up against a horse-sized wolf, so she hardly thought she could do any damage to Jacob. Perhaps she could yank on his ear or something-

"Bella, babe, that's not a good idea." Arms that weren't Embry's – but then again, she had never had the pleasure of feeling Embry's arms before and she wondered why she used him as a comparison in the first place – slipped themselves around her waist, pulling herself away from the wrestling wolves.

"Quil—!" Attempting to get out of his death-grip was pointless, but she tried to anyway. "Why—why isn't Embry doing anything?"

"Uh...well, my guess is that Embry thinks he probably deserves it..." At Bella's expression of horror and shock, Quil blinked rapidly before continuing along. "You know...for stealing his best friend's girl..." Alright, he probably shouldn't have told her that but-

"I don't belong to Jacob," Bella replied tersely. "Since when did I become a property of his?"

They all know she was furious now because she didn't say _Jake_. She only ever used _Jake's _formal name whenever she was morally pissed at him. Blind-sighted by Bella's last statement, the russet wolf threw a wounded look at her. At his mournful acknowledgment of the girl he had been in love with for the past _forever_, Embry took advantage of the momentary distraction to throw Jacob off of him completely.

He watched the way Quil was dragging Bella into the Blacks' house, bellowing in anger at the fact that Bella was being touched by a man other than Embry himself. But it had to be done – she needed to be safe and away from here. Mild amusement trickled in as Bella tried to bite Quil's arms off of her before her large, woeful chocolate swirls lifted up to meet his once more.

The _I'll be okay, I'll be okay, sweetheart _mantra was transferred to their shared gaze as much as his ability, and he didn't give a damn if Jacob could hear his thoughts right now. All that fucking mattered now that Bella _needed_ to be safe and he absolutely needed to let her know he know that he'll be fine, that Jacob's not going to touch him.

Bella barely knew him before the imprinting process, but he was touched by how much she cared now.

As though Bella could somehow understand the black and white wolf's motives, she relented to Quil, letting her body sag lightly against his while desperately peeking over the massive male's shoulder to see her wolf. _mine_mine**mine**MINE-

Jacob's snarl was what brought him back to earth again, ruthlessly ripping him away from the clouds he was soaring upon from whatever heavenly connection he was having with Bella, his imprint, the girl he would without a doubt die for. Bella was the only reason Embry held back from biting the shit out of Jacob, the urge to refrain from acting like a horrendous monster in her presence hanging heavily.

But now that she was gone and safe inside that house-

All bets were off.

**/ to be continued  
**

* * *

Leave a review? Don't you want to see Jacob's ass get handed to him by Embry? Or vice-versa, depending...


	2. Chapter Two

**A/N: **First of all, I need to thank all of you for supporting this story. Twenty-one reviews for the first chapter alone is almost unheard of nowadays, so thank you so much to all who reviewed, not to mentioned those who favorited/followed this story. Almost all of you wanted Jacob to lose - and that made me laugh. XD So, hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

**Dandelions**

**...**

Chapter Two

[_Gone are all the days of begging_]

* * *

The old Embry would have backed off without another word.

He used to be a believer in the fact that if things were about to explode on his accord, it would have been better to just brush it off like a pointless wisp, to offer a hesitant remedy in averted gazes and apologetic expressions. By default, Embry Call was the kind of boy who never inserted himself into a fight unless necessary, and few as they might have been in his pre-phasing years, those meaningless tussles were usually brought on by either Jacob or Quil. Strong, silent, and still growing into his potential, he had always been there for his friends' support.

Shyness and docility had been absent in the weeks after Embry's surprising phase and this development still stood present today. Thinking that he would be a submissive wolf had been a recurring thought to frequent the older wolves' minds, but Sam, Jared, and Paul had been forced to eat their words the very moment they all witnessed Embry's first solo kill. He was the catalyst that affected the Pack's entire dynamic – however small it might have been at the time – and his instincts were rooted to sheer impulsion and remarkable prowess.

For all they knew, the old Embry was gone. In place was a man who intuitively knew the inner workings of slaughter, honing that deadly finesse down until it was nothing but perfection to the essence of a predator. Submission was no longer in Embry's mental vocabulary. The fight was in his blood, the urge to conquer strumming at his veins, and at that tedious moment, Embry ceased seeing Jacob as another Packmate, another brother bound by the same cause.

Future Alpha or not, Jacob Black's wolf was still a silly little _pup_ who thought he could bite off more than he could actually chew.

His large body lowered so that his underbelly nearly grazed the sharp tips of the grass below him, his stance widening in mass as his claws elongated themselves from his paws and dug deep into the earth. The withers of his fur stood upright, his upper lip curling over his teeth to exploit a rather unnerving snarl, one that had Sam barking at the others to stay the fuck away. Large incisors practically thirsting for blood not of his own, Embry cocked his head to the side, aurulent eyes gazing condescendingly at the russet beast before him.

A jovial thought: _Baby Alpha's gonna get his ass whooped all the way to—_

_Man, just shut the fuck up_, Jared nipped roughly at Paul's hip to punctuate his point.

Trying to win a fight against Embry was going to be pure hell – Paul grudgingly had to admit this too – and that was enunciated the moment the white and black wolf filled his normally empty chasm of a mind with thoughts clear as the day, intentionally catching Jacob off guard for a slight second. He flashed Jacob a mental illustration of Embry planning to lunge towards Jacob's left flank. Taking the bait, Jacob instinctively sidelined to the right in a move to where he believed he was escaping on getting hurt first.

But that was the true beauty of irony – to think one thing and do the complete _opposite_. Right when Jacob drifted to the right, Embry pounced on him faster than the russet wolf had the chance to realize that he had just been blindsided into a trap. The loud guffaws expressed from Paul were surely unwarranted, but the bubble of perplexity that contorted Jacob's thoughts were spewing out hazily. Wait, hadn't Embry been planning to attack him from the left? He could have sworn-

The befuddled train of mental activity was broken when Embry launched his teeth straight into Jacob's right side, biting down hard. The pungency of bitter copper coated the sharp tips of his teeth, feeling abruptly uneasy as he tasted his best friend's – were they even friends anymore? – warm blood on his tongue. Embry immediately pulled out to hack out all remnants of the red fluid from his mouth, but by the time he was finished, Jacob had already rammed him fulsomely from a different angle.

All in all, the two wolves were almost evenly matched. Because of the legacy Jacob was expected to travel down to follow in the footsteps of his forefathers, he was immensely colossal in size. However, shockingly enough, Embry was close to Jacob to in size, despite being only a hairsbreadth leaner than Jacob was. In fact, it was only a brief matter of time before these two younger males would grow into the forms they were meant to have, both effectively becoming larger than the mammoth frame Sam had.

Embry had shot so many false ploys of attack to Jacob as a means for more disorientation that it was starting to make the Pack feel a bit woozy as a whole. These thoughts all flowed at a speed that would have made a normal human's mind absolutely break to pieces and yet they were lucrative as directive assaults. Jacob had fallen for nearly half of them during the first hour, inadvertently allowing Embry to pluck at his mind mercilessly to pieces until the russet wolf finally started relying on his instincts instead of the forms of deception Embry kept feeding him.

The fight bled on far longer than it should have, far longer than Sam should have allowed it to progress, and it was up to the point where neither of the feuding wolves realized that the sky was already painted in soft hues of orange, red, yellow, and the faintest shade of green that bordered the blue from the sun that was minutes into setting.

No doubt the earth beneath them all shook as one wolf shoved the second to the ground. No doubt people were wandering outside their front yards, trying to find out what exactly was the source behind the sonorous snarls and growls that echoed through that tiny little town of La Push. No doubt these two wolves were weary, not because their muscles strained with exhaustion but because part of them – the human part of them – realized that Packmates shouldn't fight like this. Brothers sure as hell shouldn't fight like this.

No doubt Bella was currently attempting to burn down the Blacks' floorboards by pacing incessantly.

But Jacob was stubborn and he kept on persisting. Well, so did Embry.

Nullifying his mind void of thoughts in the way the Pack had already been accustomed to, Embry phased to human, nimbly sliding underneath Jacob's furry body to land in between his front paws. At Jacob's stunned confusion, Embry used that to his advantage and wasted no time in grabbing Jacob's wolf by the back of his neck with a rough hand before twisting them both completely and slamming Jacob headfirst against the ground. Chucks of gritty earth flew where Jacob's furry head landed, a russet paw reflexively swinging out.

Embry leapt away from the wild paw and phased back all in one effortless motion. A furious growl rippled through his body then, the sound of his raging heartbeat philharmonic to his perked ears. Jared's increasing impatience, Paul's bouts of amusement, Sam's urgency for this fight to be over – all sensations Embry had no choice but to be susceptible to. Rolling the grappling tension away from his shoulders, Embry dove into the air-

_**STOP.**_

It was an Alpha command, so forceful that Embry jerked back to the ground in a flurry of commotion, bucking under the order. It hadn't come from Sam, that much he was sure of, and the black and white wolf bellowed under the weight of the requisition. Muzzle shoved into the dirt, unable to lift himself back up from the gratuitous demand, Embry let out a terrible strangled noise at the sight of Jacob peering back at him indifferently, almost like he had already won.

So much for claiming that he didn't want to be the Alpha. Jacob bared his teeth at the lowered wolf's form, hovering over a struggling Embry as he dipped his face lower to growl right into Embry's face. _**Submit now.**_

Sam's rebuttals were deferred at this point, coming up short next to the one who was supposed to be Alpha. Whether Jacob wanted the position or not, it didn't matter – he was far too embedded into his wolf to stop. Embry hated the fact that each time his opponent extended himself higher, he himself drooped down even lower than before to appease him.

_**SUBMIT, EMBRY. **_

But behind that browbeating coercion, there was a smug, lilting voice: _Bella's mine anyway. _

And at that, Embry cracked.

He clung onto his humanity in desperation, fighting tooth and nail for the remnants of the man – of the _boy_ – he used to be, unwilling to let that familiar part of himself be ripped from his bare hands. Inconsolable hopeless filled every fiber of his being as Embry watched the altruistic and humane aspect of himself being stowed away into a tight box, locked on every crevice, and tucked deep into the farthest corner of a broken man's fragmented mind before the wolf swerved up to the surface, taking over Embry's body completely.

Embry didn't stand a chance when his wolf brightened his eyes into the oddest set of jaundiced yellow the Pack had ever seen him in. His hackles were rigid with starving anticipation, his head tilting in that lofty, patronizing way. Unconsciously, Jacob mirrored the other wolf's movement, tilting his head in mild perturbation. Jacob blinked a couple of times, a chill rattling against his body when the black and white wolf shot him an uncharacteristically dark smirk, showing way too much of his sharp teeth than Jacob liked to see.

Jacob had quickly gotten a hold of his wolf right when Embry lost control of his. _Embry...?_

With a succession of quick barks that sounded much like humorless laughter, Embry's wolf snapped his neck up and knocked itself into Jacob's form, his jaw instantly locked around Jacob's throat. As a result, Jacob descended to that realm of panic, frenetic in escaping this steel-like grip about his thick neck that threatened to cut him off from his air supply. The whimpers of pain that racked at the inside of his throat transcended to full yelps belonging to that of a petrified puppy.

Getting back up was proving to be a laborious endeavor for Jacob. Every time he even attempted to inch his way back up, Embry's wolf would shove him down with a heavy claw and the hold around his neck would furl around even tighter. Rocked by this imbalance, Jacob felt the widening prickling of skin, the coarse blood that was starting to matt around the fur where Embry's wolf had his canines pierced through. Jacob's hind legs trembled under the mere exertion.

The Pack mind had cumulated into nothing but disarray. _Stop, Embry! You're going to kill him!_ Sam's voice couldn't register itself the way it used to in Embry's mind. He only clamped his teeth down much harder, shredding ruthlessly through skin, fur, and bones. Another thought tickled him – Jacob was trying to use his inner Alpha voice like he did before, but Embry was too quick. He knocked it away like it was nothing, feeding himself on Jacob's weakened state and thriving at the newfound power that coursed through his body.

Both Paul and Jared threw themselves at Embry, forced to intervene. Jacob was trapped in a state of intense agony that spoke wordlessly to all the other Packmates – even Quil, who wasn't even present – but Embry.

At the pressure of the two other wolves on each side of him, Embry's wolf buried his teeth in profoundly. _**SUBMIT, JACOB.**_

It shouldn't have worked, it really shouldn't have, but nothing could have explained it when Jacob suddenly crumpled beneath him under the heavy compulsion of those words without a fight. His body bowed over in the consumption of this unsettling loss, too fatigued to be embarrassed at the brazen turn of events. He submitted to Embry as though it was the easiest thing to do in this world because it required no thought to do so.

Embry's yellow eyes reverted back to their usual browns, slowly relinquishing Jacob's slumped body from his slightly aching jaws. It was a rare moment for the Pack to be utterly silent as Embry disentangled his fur from Paul and Jared's mouths – not that he met much resistance for it anyway. They were all reeled over in shock, but none more than the victor of the fight himself.

Because in order to have pulled off an Alpha command, he'd have to be a default leader like Sam. Unless he was like Jacob-

Unless it was his _birthright_.

_Holy shit. _Yeah, Paul seemed to have summed up this whole clusterfuck perfectly.

Jerking his head, Embry turned back to Jacob's haggardly lupine face, brown eyes meeting brown eyes. A quiet recognition lied beneath the depths of one pair while harrowing realization dawned onto the other. The latter one, Embry, was thwarted by the thought: he and Jacob were brothers in more ways than one. The word _bastard_ could finally be eradicated from his mindset.

He leaned down to lick at Jacob's snout gently, muted _so sorry's_ pouring out from Embry's system in the process. Even while his relationship with his mother was hanging by a fragile thread, she still meant the world to him. For a little lonely boy who had grown up without a father, family meant everything to Embry. So quietly, ruefully, Embry decided for himself right then and there that he would not seek out Bella Swan's affections like he had originally planned to. She was Jacob's to take.

She was his brother's to take.

Embry had won only to lose in the end. But then again, did he ever have a standing chance to begin with?

He slunk away as quickly as he could – _Wait a second, Embry, hold on_ – and playing ignorance to the implication behind Sam's words, he darted from that ruined field of grass and sought whatever solace the forest could provide him. His mind was on autopilot, transporting the Pack to that recognizable plane of eerie nothingness again, but by the gods, he was so fucking angry.

Abigail Call didn't know what was coming when the front door to her house unexpectedly swung open with a thunderous _bang_, violently ricocheting against the opposite wall before the door leaned forward awkwardly, hanging onto the fractured hinges of the frame. Heart beating a multitude a minute, she clung onto the kitchen knife between her shaking fingers, preparing for whatever dangerous psychopath actually broke the entrance to her home.

She could only gawk when she realized that the culprit was her own son.

Before Abigail had a chance to reprimand him, Embry beat her to it by furiously spitting out: _"BILLY BLACK?!" _

"W-What about Billy Black?" Abigail sputtered out, stunned that, for the first time, Embry was actually raising his voice at her.

"Oh, I don't know, Mom," came a bitter response and Abigail was way too preoccupied with how her son was radiating with a dangerous vexation to even wonder why on earth he wasn't wearing a shirt. "The fact that he's my fucking father?"

Abigail took a trembling step back, involuntarily hitting the kitchen counter. "How did you...?"

"Does it really matter how I found out?" Good sons weren't supposed to back their mothers up into a corner like how Embry was doing, but he couldn't stop now. Both man and wolf needed something to compensate for Abigail lying to him for so long. "I asked you for _years_ who the hell my father was and you always told me that he fucking left and never came back! Who knew he actually lived right around the corner of this godforsaken town, right?"

"Embry Call, don't you—"

"_Goddamn it, Mom!" _

The sound of flesh colliding with metal exploded in her left ear, prompting her to drop the kitchen knife out of fright. The scream that was close to pouring out of her mouth got caught in the alcove of her throat instead, residing there for her to choke on it. It looked like Embry was about to hurt her, the way his sloe-colored eyes gazed at her with an unfathomable expression, absolutely spearing her when his upper lip lifted in what looked like a noiseless snarl. His white teeth shined like lethal pearls against the copper of his skin.

Taking an abundant gulp of air, Abigail spared a glance to where Embry's fist had landed and almost fainted at the sight. His clenched hand was rested numbly against the upper half of their fridge, which now sported a monstrous _dent_ around her son's hand. The metal of the fridge had curled away from where his knuckles were slanted and she was sure nothing could fix the amount of damage he had done all just by one single blow. What shocked her more was the fact that his hand didn't seem bruised or bloodied at all.

Her small gasp was what brought Embry back, her face exploiting a jumbled mess of horror and panic. His nose wrinkled, smelling the scent of fear that wrapped itself around her just by remaining in his formidable presence. His momma was _scared_ of him. The wolf lurched back with unyielding shame, ears flatting against its head whenever Abigail tried her best to regain her breath back. His wolf ducked its head and ran to hide in a dark corner, leaving the diminished man to deal with the awful repercussions of losing control.

"Mom..." Crushing guilt that gnawed at him whole. "Mom, I didn't mean to—"

"I-I just remembered," Abigail interrupted in a shaky tone, averting her gaze to the side because, honestly, she couldn't look at him straight in the eye after what just happened. "I have to work the late shift at the hospital. You handle dinner by yourself, okay?"

She was already scuttling out of the door, not even stopping to look at the way the front door was hanging on precariously.

Embry remained hunched over in front the fridge, his hand still leaning against the busted metal. His other hand moved to grip the counter that his mother had been leaning against, providing a useless sense of stability to him. Lost of breath, he heard his mother fumbling with her set of car keys, dropping it to the ground a couple of times before she backed out of the driveway hectically. The worn tires screamed at the pace she was pressing on, the noise grating at his ears, and he listened until she was halfway to Forks

With a cacophonous roar that sounded just as animalistic as it would have been had he phased, Embry lifted the wooden table that served as a place to dine and hurled the damn thing so hard, it rapidly broke into two pieces the very minute it clashed with the wall. The chairs didn't fare any better – his hands would barely touch those artifacts of furniture before they quickly became disfigured in some way or another. He paused in his voyage of destroying his kitchen/dining room, sniffing the air.

"Are you done yet?"

Sam let out that inquiry very carefully before he found himself pushed against the wall, a large hand wrapped around his throat, hardened fingers digging into his skin with all intentions of choking him to death. He had vaguely wondered how Embry had gotten this _fast_, but that didn't matter at this point. It was a good thing then that Embry had such a fantastic hold down on his thoughts. It the Pack was given even the tiniest of peeks into this boy's mind, they would be swamped by it all.

For all purposes, Embry was a goddamn genius when it came to the leeches. Right next to Paul, he was one of the best fighters of the Pack, and with that being said and done, it was also undeniable that Embry's wolf was one nasty son of a bitch that Sam wouldn't ever want to wish on even his worst enemy. The aforementioned son of a bitch was nose-to-nose with Sam, nostrils flaring to deny the restraint left in him, dark brown eyes brimming with yellow-gold around the edges.

"_Embry."_ Sam managed this through the tightened fingers around his neck, staring right into Embry's snarling face as calmly as he could without turning blue at the effort. It was a quiet second or two before his throat was free from the suffocating grasp.

The younger male of the two stepped away from his Alpha, eyes narrowing only slightly as he lowered himself into one of the chairs that had escaped Embry's earlier destructive tantrum.

"Wanna talk about it, kid?"

No, he didn't want to fucking talk about it, Sam. Go ahead and fuck yourself.

Embry only grunted.

"Look, what happened with—"

But Sam didn't get very far in this small lecture of his. "I meant that I _didn't_ want to talk about this, Sam." It just didn't go that way with him. Hell would freeze over when Embry decided that he would embrace his 'inner woman' and actually have an emotional heart-to-heart conversation with Sam Uley of all people. "Let's just forget about it, alright? I'll find a way to submit to Jake later."

"It doesn't work that way," Sam bit himself from grinning at the ridiculous notion. "It's hard enough getting you to listen to _me_ sometimes, even with the Alpha order. Your wolf isn't going to back down so easily," he prodded on when the sensation of Embry's glare started burning the side of his face. "In fact, he's kind of a dick."

The wolf just about threw a loud fit at the insult, but Embry shoved against his wolf, somewhat agreeing with Sam for once.

"You don't want to be Alpha, but I don't think you have a choice anymore. You pretty much solidified yourself as a candidate for the position the moment you ordered Jake to submit, not to mention the fact that we know its in your blood now—"

"Fine, but Jake's still growing—"

"And so are you." Sam leveled Embry a gaze so copious, it would have given anyone a headache just trying to analyze what that gaze truly meant. "You think you've stopped growing as a wolf? Not a fucking chance in hell, Embry. You and Jake are still pups for god's sake."

"Did you just curse, Sam?" Embry retorted scathingly. "I didn't think Emily let you."

Only slightly bristled, the Alpha glared at the younger one and instead of Embry averting his gaze in respect like he was supposed to, he met the hard expression head-on. At this development, Sam shook his head to himself. "See what I mean? You don't understand the concept of surrendering. You're a major pain in the ass," he added with an unhesitant chuckle.

"Funny, I always thought that title belonged to Paul," Embry inserted right afterward, vainly fighting off a grin when the corner of his lips twitched in amusement. Seeing this, Sam didn't bother hiding a small smile of his own.

Leaning back against the chair, Embry silently surveyed the lines and corners of Sam's face, having done this many times before in his pre-pubescent to early teenage years. There had been a time where he had been convinced that Joshua Uley was his deadbeat father, and after his dramatic phasing, his half brothers had been narrowed down to Jacob, Quil, or Sam. Never in a millions years had he ever consider the fathers belonging to his two best friends.

On the other hand, Sam sort of already knew that Embry was Billy Black's illegitimate son. Why? Because the day Embry ran out on Bella from his and Emily's kitchen, Embry had later on pleaded with Sam to not tell Jacob. It wasn't really a plead; the way Embry forced his way behind those words made it to be an actual _order_ instead. An order with a tone that clearly bypassed the one Sam normally used at random intervals of time and one that extended throughout the entire Pack. That alone should have been the biggest clue to who his paternal parent was.

Embry thought that he was lucky that Jacob was three months older than him, therefore giving Jacob the right to being future Chief of this tribe one day. With Embry's Makah heritage, he didn't think the people would take him becoming the Chief all too kindly. However, still in terms of age, this didn't go quite the same way when it came to being Alpha of the Pack. Dominance was something too natural, something that had to have been inherent inside the man before phasing. And after what happened, it was tipping over in Embry's favor, whether he wanted it or not.

Why not just give everything to Jacob? Let him be Chief of the tribe, let him be Alpha of the Pack, let him have his fucking imprint-

As though he knew exactly what Embry was thinking, Sam rolled his eyes. "Yeah, try denying the imprint bond. I'd like to see your ass fail for once."

"Damn, I don't even know why I imprinted on her," Embry muttered, completely slumping against the wooden chair while crossing his long legs by the ankles. "Is she even part Quileute?"

Sam's shrugged his shoulders, his body half-leaning against the wall. "I'm starting to think that it really doesn't matter who you imprint on." At this rate, he wouldn't be surprised if Paul imprinted on another man...although that thought was really fucking hilarious. He made a mental note to remember this the next time he patrolled with Paul.

"I kind of wanted to find my soul mate the long way, not with this wolf voodoo shit."

His response was a derisive snort. "With your attitude? Who'd be stupid enough to fall in love with you?"

"Sam? Shut the fuck up."

Both shape-shifters knew that Embry's words was a direct order.

* * *

"You sure you don't want to make me that sandwich?"

"Quil,"Bella uttered for what seemed to be the umpteenth time that evening, hell bent on continuing her prolonging process of pacing the floorboards away. "If you want a stupid sandwich while your best friends are trying to kill each other, _go make one yourself_."

The burly male let out a hearty laugh. "Aw, Bells, don't be like that."

"Leave the girl alone," Billy Black supplied in that wondrously soothing tone of his that helped a great deal with Bella's bursting nerves. The man was seated in his recliner, flipping through the channels on his television set nonchalantly. "Quil, be a man and make the sandwich yourself—and while you're at it, be an even greater man by making me one too."

"Wait, why—"

"It's perfectly fine if you don't want to," Billy added with a simple arch of his eyebrow, not at all taking his eyes off the television screen. "I can always call Claire's parents and tell them that their family's presence isn't needed for the next bonfire. It's up to you, son."

The next few minutes passed in blissful silence as Bella watched Quil's face transform into that of shocked terror. He bumbled out a couple of incoherent words that didn't at all make sense before he fled into the kitchen, creating a small hazard for himself as he frantically searched for bread, roast beef, tomatoes, lettuce, etc. Bella couldn't help the tiny semblance of a smile flitting across her face when Billy sent a sly wink at her before his attention bounced back to the football game on the screen.

She hadn't realized that time had passed by that quickly, judging by the way the sun was almost finished setting from the sky. Her stomach rumbled moments after Quil was busy turning the Black's kitchen into a disaster zone and maybe she should have told Quil to make her a sandwich too. Maybe she should have offered to make them dinner, considering she had been staying in this house for a long while now. But there were knots in her stomach that prevented her from even thinking of eating.

Bella wanted to make sure both boys were okay, and by this, it was a subconscious indication that she had no problem ripping Jacob a new one for even starting the fight in the first place. As for Embry...well, she still wasn't sure how to act around him yet.

Part of her suddenly wished that she hadn't focused all of her attention on Jacob before he surrendered the majority life to a wolf. She wondered if she had paid more attention to Embry – or even Quil for that matter – would it have changed things? Would she have hung out more with Embry as opposed to Jacob? Embry had been a quiet thing upon first meeting him, reserved in his ways, refreshingly polite in his demeanor. If she had known him even more, perhaps she could have found a kindred spirit in him.

It surely wasn't like that now.

She'd be a liar if she said that ever since slapping Paul that fateful day, Embry didn't brush across her mind occasionally. Here was the truth: he was on her mind _all the time_. One full week of pondering how breathtaking his face really was up close, seven days of remembering how heat swarmed around her – in more ways than one – when she was in near proximity to him, one hundred and sixty-eight hours of marveling his sinuous lips, the sensuality of the structure, and approximately six hundred and four thousand, eight hundred seconds of thinking that maybe, just maybe, despite being at ease in his presence, Embry Call was more dangerous than Edward Cullen.

Edward Cullen.

Embry Call.

There was a ridiculously strange pattern erupting here and it was surprising how this was the very first time in a week since she had thought of the vampire that had left her. Odd. Bella didn't go one day without thinking of Edward and now-

The rest of that thought died in a short train wreck when the door to the house burst open.

Her eyes widened at the sight of Jacob's half-clad form, all six-foot-seven inches of him completely covered in some of the worst bruises she had ever seen, ranging from blue to purple in various places. The majority of his wounds had already closed up from his trek back home, but it didn't defeat the fact that his body was still loitered in blood and horrendously ripped skin. There was this god-awful gash that started from the nape of his neck and curved all the way towards the front of his throat, extending even into the beginning outline of his collarbone.

Bella was certain that she was getting better whenever her eyes saw something particularly bloody, but her heart pretty much halted to see the pallidity of Jacob's _bone_ sprouting out from that gory mess that draped across his throat. It was such an incorrigibly deep wound that the brunette female doubted that Jacob's fast healing abilities could save his neck without leaving a scar in its wake.

"Oh my god, Jake!" _Get a washcloth to wipe the blood away, make sure he sits down and – wait, where's Embry? _

Did Embry fare better than Jacob or was the former bleeding his way home?

Before Bella had the chance to fetch a wet washcloth, Jacob grabbed her shoulders tightly and kissed her.

She had always been so used to the sensation of cold marble touching her lips that Jacob's warm mouth had taken her by shock. His lips were soft, despite the hard exterior he carried as a shape-shifter, but that was really all she noticed. There wasn't anything more amazing to this forced kiss than that fact. Her arms remained listlessly limp at her side. Frozen, her mind naturally took its course and backpedaled into conjecturing whether or not Embry's lips had a similar feeling to Jacob's.

Were they just as soft or were they softer? Well, Embry's mouth _did_ have a beautiful curve to it-

Shivers began to languidly crawl up her spine, although it wasn't because of the Quileute boy who was her best friend in these recent months. No, it derived from the Quileute boy she barely knew, and in the back of her mind, Bella knew that this was ultimately more insane than voluntarily subjecting herself into a relationship with a vampire.

Her pale hands slowly fisted themselves at her hips, a conscious thought to maybe shove at Jacob's chest since this kiss was clearly going nowhere in its duration of time. Bella hadn't responded to the kiss at all and Jacob, unknowingly, stopped trying after a few seconds had passed between them. She didn't have the chance to push him away as she should have immediately done so because Jacob was already pulling away, a devastated expression etched onto his face.

Jacob backed away from Bella, his hands leaned back as though he had just burned them. Wide-eyed and staggering, the huge male crept until the back of his knees touched the couch, making no effort to remain stable as he let himself fall backward onto the piece of furniture. Laid out on the proverbial surface, something called Jacob's heart started to break at the seams, but it was flushed out by the dawning realization that the one girl he had been in love this entire time was _not for him_.

She never was. Kissing Bella was close enough to kissing Rachel or Rebecca. It felt so inextricably wrong.

"Jake?" Bella tried in a cautious murmur.

"Nothing," was an empty response from his mouth. This type of understanding couldn't come without a twinge of pain. "Bells, I felt _nothing_."

Both teenagers had forgotten that Billy had still been in the room right up until the moment where the elder man leaned over his chair to pat tenderly at Jacob's hand. "It'll be alright, son."

"Yeah," Bella hastened to sputter out, wriggling her hands nervously behind her back. "Nothing has to change between us. Jake N' Bells, remember? We'll always have that." Whatever revelation might have surpassed Jacob right now, they would always be friends, that she was sure of. Becoming blind to Billy's presence once more, Bella added: "I'm really sorry, Jake, if I led you on or anything—"

"Are you kidding me?" Jacob started laughing, but it wasn't the usual bright laughter she was accustomed to. This laugh was a little more disheartening to hear from his mouth. "I'm the one that kissed you and _you're_ apologizing to me? God, Bells...you're fucking crazy."

In the short silence that abruptly took over, Jacob and Bella shared a soft gaze together. It was wordless, but between the two of them, this was one of those moments where they were able to express as much emotion as they wanted, regardless of her innate awkwardness and his overpowering rapture. He felt spurned and the comprehension that they weren't meant to be together really _hurt_. He could have done so much damage if he had chosen to pursue Bella right after Embry's unpredictable act of stepping down.

Jacob deserved to hurt himself, but Bella didn't deserve this.

Neither did Embry.

He spared the girl another look, one to which Bella understood quite well. This wasn't a one-time tryst and it was an instant switch-off for him – it was purely unrealistic for anyone to believe that Jacob would get over this in one single night. Bella would gladly make herself sparse from his life, giving him as much time he needed, as long as it ensured that he would be okay again. She demanded too much of his time on a weekly basis, more so knowingly than less, and it was time to stop being selfish.

"I'll give you all the time you need," Bella spoke quietly, answering the unspoken question that lingered in the air like a bulk of pressure, the unwanted elephant in the room. "It'll...it'll be okay, Jake. I promise."

"Jake N' Bells..." Jacob mumbled, a little unsure, a little insecure.

Bella would have none of that. "Jake N' Bells," she repeated firmly.

The smile that followed wasn't the usual ear-splitting grin she recognized. The sunshine of his real smile was cowering behind a thick shade of anguish, a hefty shade of despondency, but small beams of light poured through – enough proof that the sun wasn't gone, just blocked by temporary clouds that surely wouldn't remain there forever. Not if Bella could help it.

The gentle look Billy sent her made her just a bit uncomfortable, but she summoned enough energy to smile back.

"_Here!" _Quil chose that moment to stumble into the room with a loud raucous, all but throwing a plate on Billy's lap, a plate consisting of a roast beef sandwich that looked questionable in her point of view. "Don't call Claire's parents. I haven't seen Claire in _weeks_, Billy!"

"What the hell are you talking about, Quil?" Jacob broke away from his depressing daze and shot his friend a look of irritation.

"Nothing," Billy chirped, sending Quil a look before staring down at the sandwich, shrugging his shoulders when he had nothing better to eat than what was given.

And then she remembered that Jacob was still bleeding all over the couch. "Crap, you're still hurt!"

Without another word spoken, Bella rushed into the kitchen and grabbed the washcloth she was supposed to have already gotten. After dampening it with water, she proceeded to wipe the blood away from his skin, halting a couple of times when Jacob hissed at the cold touch on his raw wounds. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly as she cleaned the injuries, coming to chew the inside of her cheek.

"Bells, I can practically hear you thinking from over here. You worried about Embry?"

She blanched, hands twitching at she did the necessary ministrations on her skin. "How'd you know?"

"This imprinting shit works fast," he muttered too low for her to hear, though it wasn't lost to Quil's ears. "To be honest, he kicked my ass. He came out of the fight way better than I did." Of course, Jacob looked far from happy at the fact.

(Billy looked extremely proud at this.)

"Serves you right," Bella uttered, resisting the urge to harrumph right at him. "You started the fight in the first place. And what's this about telling people that I'm _your_ girl?" she narrowed her eyes and flicked Jacob's nose, satisfied when he flinched at the sharp touch. She wasn't going to show that her fingers were burning with minor pain after that small flick.

"I had to try, Bells," Jacob shot her another small grin.

"Well, I don't see why you had to—" Bella cut herself off when something unnatural swung at her.

Her chest suddenly ached with a discomforting pain she had never felt before – not even when Edward left her – and she couldn't feel the fingers to her hands. Bella's heart felt as though it was placed right beside her ear, reverberating loudly in the cartilage of her shell that she couldn't quite hear the frantic shouts belonging to the various men around her. She had the spastic need to run somewhere, to _someone_, because something terrible was happening.

The walls around her heart clamped together tightly, prompting her to breathe in small gasps as she inadvertently leaned into Jacob's embrace, caught in between hyperventilating and letting out painful coughs each time she was hit with this intricate wave of fear and anger, so much anger, that was currently driving her deranged. Bella shook violently, wracking at her pale body to make it seem frailer than it usually was. Brown eyes darting wildly from side to side, she didn't see Jacob or Quil leaning in to see what was wrong with her.

_Embry. _

"D-Don't!" she gasped out, wiggling frantically out of Jacob's arms, pushing herself towards the door on wobbly legs. She didn't care if she had to _crawl _her way out of this place – she needed to _leave_. "Where...where does Embry live?"

All three men merely stared at her.

"_Where does Embry live?!" _Bella shrieked like a frightening banshee, waking them all from their temporarily stunned state.

Twenty-five seconds later, yes she counted, Bella was handed a small piece of paper with Quil's chicken scratch of a writing sprawled over the surface of it, displaying Embry's house address. She didn't hear Billy advising the boys to stay put and let her be. She didn't hear Quil cursing over the place, somehow coming to the conclusion that something must have happened to Embry for it to have affected Bella like this. She certainly didn't hear Jacob sighing before he frowned at his father, claiming that they needed to talk about something rather important.

Bella flew into the driver's seat of her rickety truck, uncontrollable tremors pulsing through her fingers as she attempted to slip the keys into the ignition. She thumped at her chest to stop the ache that spun there, but that gesture only proved to be the wrong thing to do as she erupted into more irrepressible coughs. Driving was starting to be an imperilment for Bella, even by her reckless standards, considering she almost swerved off the road four times during the drive there.

Even in a small town like La Push, Embry's house was twenty minutes away from the Black's house. Too damn far away. By the time she arrived at the modest two-story structure, she was sure her heart was trying to claw its way out from her chest. She tripped over her feet while bounding up the steps, but she barely registered the impact, senseless to the way her palms and knees got scraped against the pavement. Her world was already spinning and falling towards the ground didn't make much of a difference.

Her mahogany hair was mussed from running her fingers through it too many times, and she thanked god or whoever it was out there that the front door was already open. Well, it was broken...but she didn't pay any attention to that.

"Bella?" She had come face to face with none other than Sam, eyebrows knitted together at the sight of her. He opened his mouth to say something else, but a blaring _crash_ shattered against a wall further into the house.

"No," Bella instantly said, inching away from Sam's hands when he tried to steer her right back out of the house. "Embry? Is Embry okay?"

Another rupture of a noise was her response and that was all the answer she needed. Bella quickly ducked under Sam's arms, wondering how she had pulled off that move that quickly from the back of her mind, and she strode into what she assumed to be the living room.

The curtains that hung from the windows were torn into immeasurable pieces, the stuffing of the couch had been ripped out and spread across the wooden floorboards of the room, a broken vase lied forgotten in a vast corner, and the dark television set that was connected to the wall didn't look so much like a television set anymore, not with the wide cracks and holes that adorned the screen.

She dared a step towards Embry's stilled form in the middle of the room when he let out an earth-shattering howl that shook the walls and drove a wedge straight into her core.

Smelling her, the man turned – a human Embry with yellow eyes.

Bella bit back muffled gasp when he suddenly lurched towards her, muscled arms extending around her. Embry jerked her body in swiftly, desperately, her small front ramming against his chest with unparagoned fervor that seeped through his body language. His arms were bruisingly tight around the span of her waist, a large hand molding directly into her hipbones. The fingers of his other hand visibly shook as he hysterically shoved her soft hair away from her neck, almost snarling with impatience.

Once the snow of her neck was bare and in a vulnerable position, Embry quickly leaned in and stuck his nose at the curve that joined both her throat and shoulder blade together. He snuffed at her skin, inhaling in the familarity of warm honeysuckle that resided there. This time, she did let out a small squeak when he swallowed her body into his arms and lifted her a few inches off the floor just so that he could run his nose all over her neck, even lingering the tip of his nose at the nape.

She had clutched at his forearms for support, unnecessary as that was, but Bella didn't realize that her arms were slowly coming to twine around his own neck, fingers barely grazing the back of his hair. For the first time in a long time though, Bella knew that she was in the right place at the right time. Her heart had stopped thumping so hard and her chest lessened in pain from feeling Embry all around her. She sighed softly when his hand slowly trailed up her back to bury itself into the tangles of her hair.

_I don't even know you, Embry. _

Hell, she didn't _care_.

"What happened?" Bella mouthed in a silent whisper, knowing that Sam would be able to decipher it from where he was standing.

"It's his mom." And they shared an apprehensive glance over Embry's shoulder. "She's missing."

**/ to be continued  
**

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Leave a review? What do you think happened to Embry's momma?


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